WA:Mining tax needed to fund roads: Buswell

West Australian Transport Minister
Troy Buswell
said the state will be relying on revenue from the federal government’s mining tax to help fund one of its major road projects.

This is despite WA Premier
Colin Barnett
consistently calling the proposed mineral resources rent tax “the worst example of public policy" he had ever seen and saying he hoped it would not pass parliament.

Under the Gateway Project, jointly funded by the state and federal government, the major roads and interchanges around Perth Airport will be upgraded.

Mr Buswell told a budget estimates hearing on Thursday that $177 million, split 50-50 between the state and Commonwealth, had been allocated for the project in the first tranche of funding.

The WA government has earmarked another $8 million in its forward estimates while the federal government has allocated $179 million in its budget’s out-years, he said.

“We need more than that to finish Gateway," Mr Buswell said. “The advice we have had from the Commonwealth is that the balance of the Commonwealth contribution in that second tranche will materialise subject to the passage of the Commonwealth’s resource rent tax."

The Great Eastern Highway was the main road used to travel from the Perth CBD to the airport and was currently undergoing an upgrade costing about $320 million, Mr Buswell said.

However, the transport minister said it would not remain as the main road to the airport and would likely be replaced by the Orrong Road and Leach Highway route.